By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss US plans of setting up missile defence systems in Europe with top American leaders during his upcoming visit to the US, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.
Medvedev, who will visit the US in June, is aiming to boost Russian-US cooperation in various spheres, including trade and the high-tech industry.
“This (the US missile defence plans in Europe) will be one of the topics for discussion. We have high expectations of this summit,” Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister was quoted as saying by the Kommersant daily.
“We have not yet agreed on this issue and we are trying to clarify how the agreements reached by the two presidents… correlate with the actions taken unilaterally by Washington,” Lavrov said
The Obama administration has not coordinated its missile defence plans with Russia, he said.
Relations between Russia and the US have warmed since Medvedev and Barack Obama announced a new policy of resetting bilateral ties last year.
Although Obama had temporarily suspended in September 2009 plans by the Bush administration to deploy missile-defence elements in the Czech Republic and Poland, Washington has not given up on its plans.
The US, meanwhile, opened a temporary military base near the Polish town of Morag, 80 km from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, in accordance with an agreement signed in 2008.
Moscow has, however, expressed concern over the base’s proximity to the Russian border and suggested that it be moved to a different location.
The US is also in talks with Bulgaria and Romania on deploying the US missile shield on their territories from 2015.